


Church Bells

by CaffeinatedBunny



Series: 13 o'clock [1]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Short One Shot, no happy ending, sad fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 08:09:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20306233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaffeinatedBunny/pseuds/CaffeinatedBunny
Summary: He returns home, only to return to a nightmare that there's no waking from.





	Church Bells

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't hate me.

It's cold and dreary, autumn slowly creeping in; the leaves tinged yellow at the tips. There's a fog rolling in from the woods and Eames can't help but think it's appropriate, considering where he's standings. He's been away for eight months on a long con, his last con he had promised; 'just one last one darling and then I'm done and I'll home safe and sound promise, you believe me don't you?'. They both knew that the downtime would only last for so long before both of them would itch for work but he had kept putting off their down time. He had kept finding work for himself, still so scared of finally settling down, finally committing. Arthur patient and so sure of what he wanted always willing to wait and Eames had known that the point man wouldn't wait forever but was for now. 

Eight months away and he'd returned to a life burnt to ashes. He's hollowed out and aching, though a part of him is screaming that he's dreaming, that it's all a dream and once the timers up he'll wake up. 

(He knows he's in reality, because a dream has never ached this deep into his soul. He knows he's awake because if he dreamed he'd never willingly wake.) 

In the distance a church bell tolls, it reverberates through him as it seems to haunt the hills where he's standing; staring sight unseen at the tombstone before him. The marble is grey and cold, the writing carved into the stone and inlaid with black lacquer, it's such a simple thing that marks the end of anything he had dared hoped for himself. 

It's a marker for where they buried his heart, his soul and it leaves him as nothing more than a dead man still breathing. There's fresh brunches of flowers at its base, the earth still freshly turned over. He wanted to scream but his voice fled him when he returned home only to see the desecrated remains of their house still roped off with police tape, Cobbs voice still ringing in his ears.

"He didn't make it; no one knows if it was a past mark that found him or what just that the fire was deliberately set...,"

Blinking the haze from his eyes, uncaring that tears were silently falling down his cheeks he stares at the simple description carved into the tombstone.

'In loving memory of Arthur Kennedy...'

Eames can't even finish reading the inscription, can't find it in himself to speak, to say goodbye because there's no way he can say goodbye. He can't, he refuses too because there would be no one after Arthur. Arthur had been it for him, the only person he had ever wanted to tie himself to he had allowed his own fear to hold him back. He had kept running, kept Arthur waiting and now he was left with nothing but regret, shattered dreams and a burnt down house. Everything had gone up in flames, he had nothing but this tombstone now and the tolling of the church bells in the distance.


End file.
